The Silent Twins
Focus Features | Release Date: September 16, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 9, 2022
Though certainly at home to overcast misery, the film incorporates spooky, stop-motion animation and musical interludes that might have amused Ken Russell. It works in surprising ways. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshSep 15, 2022
It is a beautiful blend of unforgettable physical performance and visual lyricism brought to bear on the tragic life story of the Gibbons twins, their wildly imaginative writing woven throughout like a sparkling thread, offering a brief glimpse into their realm of existence and imagination. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 14, 2022
This is an engrossing, well-acted story – disturbing but also tender and sad. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 13, 2022
What happens to the twins won’t be revealed here (those with overriding curiosity can find the Wikipedia page about them), but Smoczynska, Wright and Lawrance find the humanity and empathy in their story, if not the complex psychological reasons behind their unique lives. Read full review
70
SlashfilmRafael MotamayorSep 14, 2022
Sadly, as creative as The Silent Twins is, and as much homework as the filmmakers clearly did in replicating the details of the story and the works of the twins, the film never fully says anything meaningful. Not about the real Gibbons sisters, not about race, not about mental health and its treatment in the U.K. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 14, 2022
Layering one wild formal flourish over another — from macabre stop-motion animation to elaborately choreographed musical fantasies — to channel the inner lives of two young women who communicated only with each other, keeping the rest of the world outside their circle, it’s a swing for the fences that sometimes, almost by design, spins out of control. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 14, 2022
The director of The Lure has a knack for peculiar protagonists — not to mention mixing whimsy with darker textures — but her latest provocation wouldn’t be so affecting if not for the committed performances of Wright and Tamara Lawrance, who play sisters who understand one another when no one else does. Read full review
67
ColliderChase HutchinsonSep 16, 2022
Even with its many narrative flaws, The Silent Twins gives us an insight into not just the lives of the two sisters but the way they made sense of it through stories of their own. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 14, 2022
Although the film allows us a certain emotional proximity to the twins, it never rewards us with understanding or dramatic resolution. Their story draws us in, but distant (and silent) outsiders they remain. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMurtada ElfadlSep 13, 2022
In The Silent Twins, the Gibbons sisters are let down by a script that undercuts the unique circumstances of their lives with familiar and ultimately less compelling storytelling tropes. Read full review
63
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpSep 15, 2022
There’s solace to take in the realization that in another director’s hands, The Silent Twins would have been completely standardized, absent the redeeming artistic value invested in the film by Smoczynska’s presence. But the film doesn’t capitalize on her vision. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 15, 2022
For all its stylistic flourishes, “The Silent Twins” winds up a relatively superficial entry in the genre of mental health biopics. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesQina LiuSep 15, 2022
Directed by Smoczynska, The Silent Twins feels like an art exhibit to be installed on a continuous loop on a TV inside a cage in a museum. There’s a barrier that holds the audience at a distance so that watching this film feels like studying an invasive social experiment that places the Gibbons twins on display — like caged parrots asked to sing. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsSep 13, 2022
The Silent Twins doesn’t try to explain its protagonists’ affliction, but the movie does express its crushing sadness. Read full review
60
EmpireAmon WarmannDec 12, 2022
Some wonderful visual flourishes and two brilliant central performances by Wright and Lawrence help to illuminate the Gibbons sisters’ headspaces. But without important context, true insight and understanding remains elusive. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBeandrea JulySep 15, 2022
Whatever is or isn’t broken about the twins remains a secret, but June and Jennifer’s story is played by Wright and Lawrance with the thoughtful consideration these real-life women deserve. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRafaela Sales RossSep 14, 2022
As a visual offering, The Silent Twins has moments of sheer, raw imaginativeness. As a worthy study of the two central characters, sadly, it lacks the same level of vision. Read full review
50
Little White LiesHannah StrongDec 10, 2022
Despite its noble intentions, The Silent Twins is a broad-brush depiction of the Gibbons sisters’ lives, one that fails to represent the institutional racism and discrimination which had a profoundly damaging effect on them and quite possibly led to Jennifer’s death. Read full review
50
Screen RantPatrice WitherspoonSep 16, 2022
The acting, from both Black Panther's Letitia Wright as June and Tamara Lawrance as Jennifer, is a particular standout. Their commitment to delivering intriguing performances as troubled twins elevates this weak script and enables viewers to become fixated on what was happening to them. Read full review
50
TheWrapSep 15, 2022
It’s undoubted that the Gibbons twins were both original thinkers who were victimized by a system that did not recognize them as autonomous people, but it’s unfortunate that The Silent Twins is keen to do the same, reducing them to vehicles for aesthetic flexing and moral lecturing, rather than, as they themselves would have requested, simply letting them be. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 15, 2022
That’s the ultimate dividedness of “The Silent Twins.” What feels most fresh and true in it is, literally, imaginary, June and Jennifer’s flights of fancy. What feels most leaden and movie-phony is based on fact. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDavid RobbSep 14, 2022
Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s film is unwilling to really sit with the peculiarity of its protagonists’ unique psyches. Read full review
50
IndieWireAdam SolomonsSep 14, 2022
It’s a shame that telling the Gibbons’ true story is a task too difficult for The Silent Twins, because there are real signs of promise. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 14, 2022
However intrinsically fascinating the Gibbons sisters’ story might be, Smoczynska and Seigel’s interpretation of the material feels off somehow — a little too pleased with its own quirk, and too preoccupied with surface texture and color to help viewers truly understand its troubled protagonists. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comPeyton RobinsonSep 16, 2022
While there's undeniable creativity in the film's visual and metaphorical aspects, there's a glaring neglect in the power needed for this film to find its own voice. Read full review
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